Laura Linney will appear in U.S. version of Love Actually sequel

Anyone paying attention to the U.K.’s Red Nose Day/Comic Relief charity drive on Friday can likely tell you who was accounted for in Richard Curtis’ delightful short film Red Nose Day Actually. The 14-years-later check-in with the characters from 2003’s Love Actuallyfeatured appearances from Bill Nighy, Liam Neeson, Hugh Grant, Keira Knightley, Andrew Lincoln, Martine McCutcheon, Colin Firth, and others. The short film appeared on the U.K.’s Red Nose Day (which raised $91 million and counting to add to its $1-billion-plus lifetime haul) and will also be a part of America’s Red Nose Day jamboree in two months.

Regarding the original cast members who were not involved in the mini-sequel, the British Telegraphnewspaper wrote, “It was disappointing that Laura Linney’s sweet, selfless Sarah – or indeed her mentally ill brother – didn’t get their happy ending. Curtis couldn’t squeeze everything into a 12-minute running time but still.”

Well, the Telegraph will be among the many fans happy to hear this news: EW can exclusively reveal that Linney will reprise her role for the U.S. version of Red Nose Day Actually, airing May 25 on NBC.

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“I’d done something for the last Red Nose Day,” the actress tells EW of the 2015 event, which also featured Julia Roberts and Jennifer Aniston. “So I’d kept in touch with Richard Curtis. And then he sent me an email, explaining this short film reunion. I said yes, obviously. How could I say no? And right away we were figuring out our schedules.”

Her scene will be filmed in April, though Linney adds with an excited laugh, “I have no idea what I’m doing yet. Not a clue.”

Linney played a lonely American businesswoman named Sarah who sparks a romance with her office crush (Rodrigo Santoro). For EW’s upcoming issue (featuring a seven-page Love Actually reunion; on stands Friday), she explained, “Rodrigo and I were both heartbroken at the time we made the film. We’d both recently been through terrible relationships and were bemoaning that moment in our lives. But we both got to make each other feel better all day long. I think you can see it in the scene after I do my Snoopy dance in the doorway: two injured people finding each other.”